Religion and Social Standing

Having mentioned the Aid Watchers blog earlier this week, it is fitting that I should refer you to one of their interesting recent posts. The diagram below graphs the percentage of college graduates against average income for a number of religious groups in the US. Hindus and Reform Jews have the highest percentage of graduates as well as the highest income, whereas Pentecostals and Baptists rank reletively low on both scales. It is hard to know how to interprate this data; in particular does religious affiliation have an impact on these social measures or does your social standing have an impact on your choice of religion, or indeed is there no causality at all. Nevertheless, it makes fascinating reading and it would be interesting to see similar data for the UK.